A common method of carrying provisions, equipment, and clothing for camping, hiking, trekking, etc. is by the utilization of what is commonly referred to as a backpack. Backpacks come in a variety of styles, however, the five major categories are the Fanny Pack, Day Pack, Built-in Frame Pack, Outside Frame Pack, and Travel Pack.
Although products for each of the five categories of backpacks, and a fanny pack are not expressly discussed herein, the present invention is applicable to all in that the invention can be applied to any of the products mentioned herein as will be apparent to a person of skill in the art, and additional load bearing products in a similar manner.
As a considerable amount of weight is carried on the human body (up to 80 pounds and over), depending on the style of backpack, strain on the body is generally concentrated on the shoulders and spinal column. The load therefore pulls the spine and shoulders back in an unnatural state that can cause discomfort, pain, and even injury. As the shoulder straps of a conventional backpack provide the major anchor to the body for the backpack, the latest technology has made every effort to design the packs to spread the load to the hips to the greatest extent possible.
There are currently two fundamental techniques for achieving the displacement of the load from the shoulders of a user. The first is to utilize a 3-4 inch padded belt around the hips attached to the pack or the frame, to attempt to transfer the load to the hips which can naturally support the load better based on human anatomy. The second technique used by most backpack designers today is to place the shoulder straps horizontal with the shoulders at the top of the pack, in an effort to force the load downward from the highest point of the pack. The result of these efforts has provided modest improvements at best.
Given human anatomy, any load strapped over the shoulders, with gravity pulling that load downward, will place a strain on the major area of contact, mainly, the shoulders. Using a design with straps over the shoulders and a belt to keep the backpack in contact with the hips will provide only a minimum dispersion of this weight to the hips.
The principle of displacing the weight of the load toward a lower and more substantial body part, which can more easily handle said load, is correct. However, the current state of the art in design does not include the most functional method, which is contained in the invention submitted herein.
The present invention is designed keeping in mind the previous design hypotheses described above, but adding to that hypotheses, bionics, to achieve what physical human strength cannot.
While it is correct that previous backpack designs that hang over the shoulders and connect to the hips in an attempt to disperse the load of the backpack to the hips, and thereby achieving better support of that load while decreasing stress on the body, the present invention is designed to more effectively accomplish the above. Utilization of a mechanical advantage device (bionics) that can more efficiently and effectively compress the hips and abdominal cavity by circumvention, does at the same time unload the shoulders and spinal column and thereby transfer and spread the load of the backpack to pelvic area of the body. Because of the circumventional compression achieved by this unique device, the amount of the load dispersed is in direct correlation to the amount of abdominal compression achieved. Existing backpack designs all try to accomplish this objective by using a belt that connects the bottom of the backpack to the hips. Most of the time it produces a simple connection of the pack to the body at the area of the hip, but little more. A bionic system herein provides the user a machine that can substitute for the human lack of strength to accomplish the task.
The present invention integrates a mechanical advantage (bionic) lumbar back support into the backpack design in a manner that unloads the shoulders and spine, places the pelvis in a pelvic tilt to strengthen the spinal column, and compresses the abdominal cavity 4-8 times greater than can be achieved without the bionic device, thereby achieving maximum body position and strength to receive the load. The end result is transference of the load 4-8 times more effectively than current backpack designs.
Additional design features addressed herein, that would work in conjunction with the new backpack design, include the use of bionic systems contained herein, to tighten the load inside of the pack, to better conform the width of the pack with the width of the body wearing the pack, thus achieving greater balance of the load on the human body.
Additional design features that could work in conjunction with the new backpack design, include the use of bionic (mechanical advantage) systems contained herein, to tighten the load inside the pack, in order to better conform the pack with the width of the body wearing the pack, thus achieving greater balance of the load on the human body.
Also the need to compress a sleeping bag so as to reduce the size of the sleeping bag in order to best conform it to the balance of the overall load, while making it more compact to fit beneath the pack or in the smallest containment pocket possible, can best be achieved by utilization of a similar bionic (mechanical advantage) system which is easily applied.